Doesn’t seem that unreasonable. $712 for a course of medicine that reduces the death rate from COVID-19 by 50%?

The $17.74 they are comparing it to ignores the need to pay for R&D. How would drug companies pay for all the trials and science to bring new drugs to market (including the many candidates that fail but still required investment to see if they would work) if all drugs were sold at “cost” ignoring the investment of creating the IP in the first place?